Aahana Swrup
Lee Daniels’ demonic horror film, ‘The Deliverance,’ centers around a family who falls victim to an eerie house rumored to be haunted by diabolical spirits from hell. Shortly after Ebony Jackson, her three kids, Andre, Nate, and Shante, and her mother, Alberta, move into a house in Pittsburgh, the financially struggling family notices bizarre occurrences around them. As the three kids begin acting strange, it attracts the attention of Cynthia, the family’s DCS manager, who is compelled to believe Ebony must have been mistreating her children based on the marks and bruises on their bodies. Nevertheless, as the reality of their hellish situation settles in, the family is forced to face an unbelievable truth about the evil spirits in their home.
Even though ‘The Deliverance’ revolves around an exorcism plot, its more grounded instances are based on realistic and authentic soil. The Jackson family’s narrative, though built around a portal to hell, finds uncanny parallels to reality in the way their community receives their joint instability. For the same reason, intrigue is bound to arise around Ebony and her family, leading viewers to wonder just how much of the film is based on real-life events.
The Deliverance and Latoya Ammons’ Unbelievably Real Paranormal Run-in
‘The Deliverance’ has surprisingly strong roots in reality since it utilizes Latoya Ammons‘ actual experiences as the central inspiration for its on-screen horror story. In 2011, Ammons and her family—three kids and her mother, Rosa Campbell—started renting a house in Gary, Indiana, on Carolina Street. Shortly afterward, the family underwent increasingly disconcerting events that led them to believe their home was under demonic possession. From swarms of flies flocking on their porch to inexplicable footsteps in the middle of the night and claims of levitations, the family claimed to have experienced it all.
At first, the allegedly paranormal activities in the Carolina Street home remained confined to unsettling instances. However, the family and their extended friends and relatives claim to have witnessed a jarring scene on March 10, 2012, wherein Latoya’s 12-year-old daughter purportedly began levitating above the bed. The apparent levitating was combated with prayer, and once the girl returned to consciousness, she had no memory of the incident. Other events that Latoya, Rosa, and their acquaintances attested to include an unseen energy throwing one of the kids out of the bathroom and another kid sustaining an injury after an inexplicable accident with the headboard.
Latoya’s kids also often passed out and spoke to people as if under some other power’s possession. On their part, the family reached out to medical professionals and the Church per their Christian beliefs. The Church believed spirits overtook the Ammons’ house, and one clairvoyant declared that 200 demons had taken control of the residence. In both instances, the best course of action remained to evacuate the premises. Nevertheless, the same wasn’t an option for the Ammons family due to their financial situation. Thus, Latoya instead built an altar in her basement and adopted religious fail-safes, such as olive oil, crosses, and prayers, to defend her family against the believed spirits.
The Involvement of the Department of Child Services
Around the same time as these alleged paranormal activities, someone called the DCS on Latoya Ammons for probable child abuse and neglect due to her children’s situation. On April 19, 2012, Dr. Geoffrey Onyeukwu, the family physician of Latoya Ammons, oversaw the family and backed the situation’s bizarreness. “Twenty years, and I’ve never heard anything like that in my life,” he told Indy Star in 2014. “I was scared myself when I walked into the room.” Eventually, as Latoya’s sons grew unstable, the authorities took them away to Gary’s Methodist Hospital, where Valerie Washington—the family DCS case manager, interviewed them.
During the interview with Latoya’s 7-year-old and 9-year-old sons, Washington and registered nurse Willie Lee Walker both claim that the latter child walked up a ceiling. In the aftermath, the boy had no recollection of the event. As per police reports, Washington shared that the family could be under an evil influence. The next day, the hospital staff called Reverand Michael Maginot to perform an exorcism on the kid. Consequently, the Church became involved in the case as Maginot began his investigation and came to the same conclusion that the house wasn’t safe.
A few days later, the DCS took custody of the kids on account of the spiritual and emotional distress they apparently experienced. Meanwhile, Latoya and her mother, Rosa, continued working with the police and Maginot to learn the truth about the house. The Gary police captain, Charles Austin, accompanied the group and started believing in demons after experiencing the dreadful environment of the Ammons residence. Reportedly, the police took several paranormally charged photos during this investigation. After performing a few minor exorcisms, Maginot eventually reached out to the Catholic Church’s Bishop and got permission to perform an exorcism on Latoya.
Thus, in June 2012, Maginot performed three exorcisms over multiple days at Merrillville church. In the end, after the third exorcism, Latoya and her family were able to return to their regular lives. Nonetheless, their house in Carolina Street remained a place of intrigue, attracting public attention. Ultimately, in 2016, Zak Bagans demolished the house during the production of the documentary, ‘Demon House,’ released in 2018.
Mental Health Professionals Have a Different Answer For Ammons’ Experience
Although multiple individuals, from church officials and police officers to DCS workers, felt compelled to believe that the house was under paranormal scrutiny, medical professionals involved in evaluating the Ammons Family’s mental health came to a different conclusion. While working with Latoya’s youngest kid, Stacy Wright, a clinical psychologist, established that the boy’s behavior was mostly logical except for when he discussed demons.
Therefore, in her evaluation, Wright concluded that Latoya and her relatives had potentially induced the kid into a delusional system by encouraging illogical ideas. Other psychologists who worked with other family members shared the same thought. Nevertheless, Latoya maintained that God helped her through the problem, which she deemed to be demonic in nature. As for ‘The Deliverance,’ Lee Daniels’ true-story-inspired film caters more toward the paranormal explanation behind the Ammons family story.
Furthermore, the film expands upon the idea through fictionalized lore to make the haunting of the family’s house seem more believable. Naturally, as it translates the true story into the cinematic horror genre, certain fabricated details are added to the narrative. For the same reason, the on-screen story changes up the characters’ names and molds Latoya Ammons’ real-life experience into a more streamlined narrative. As such, the film ultimately remains a dramatized version of reality rather than a biographical replication. Nonetheless, it still finds a basis in a true story.
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